Get Updated with what's happening in the World

Google health initiative in the works, organizing AI, Nest, & Fit

Despite its machine learning prowess and massive consumer reach, Google has yet to launch major health products. However, the interest is there, with the company today appointing the former CEO of a health care system to lead and organize various teams.

According to CNBC, Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg has been appointed by Google to coordinate future health efforts. He previously led a health service organization with 1.5 million patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Not factoring in Alphabet, which has Verily and Calico, multiple groups within Google are interested in health. Google Fit is the only consumer service today, having recently been revamped and closely integrated with Wear OS. Speaking of hardware, the now Google Home-integrated Nest division is rumored to be designing health devices for the home. This group reportedly wants to use technology to allow senior citizens to live independently.

Meanwhile, Search has long provided results about various conditions in the form of Knowledge Panels and has massive insight into trends, like during flu season. Google Cloud is another interested party, and offers secure cloud services and APIs to health care providers; recently partnering with Fitbit.

Google Brain and AI chief Jeff Dean is also interested in the space, with the division showing off work on a cancer-detecting AR microscope and other machine learning-backed efforts, like analyzing the relationship between retinas and heart disease. Dean has been “deeply involved in the process,” according to CNBC, with Feinberg directly reporting to the head of Google AI, while also working with CEO Sundar Pichai.

This development comes as Alphabet just closed a two-day summit where various teams from the companies presented research and sent representatives. Health care is a $3 trillion market with machine learning and technology allowing for mass data analysis and improvements to care.